Courtney McGrailStaff reporter
Papal Nuncio Archbishop Charles Brown has revealed that the happiest years of his priesthood were spent working with young Irish immigrants in New York in the 1980s.
In an in-depth interview with veteran broadcaster Gay Byrne due to be broadcast by RTÉ on Sunday night, Archbishop Brown also discusses how his call to the priesthood came to fruition while on a trekking holiday in India.
Archbishop Brown, who has served as the Pope’s representative in Ireland for almost five years, expresses his view that “the path of the Church forward in Ireland is not going to be easy”.
In the 30 minute programme – the most in-depth broadcast interview the Papal Nuncio has given – he recalls his first assignment after ordination.
“I was delighted. I was sent to The Bronx, to St Brendan’s, [on] 204th Street. It was the centre really, in those years, of Irish immigration, young Irish immigration. So, everyone was from here.
“It was fantastic – also you’re filled with enthusiasm when you begin, it was fantastic: I loved it, he said of those years.
Archbishop Brown says that he has been happy as a priest in his various appointments, but admits that St Brendan’s was “in some ways the happiest years of my priesthood”.
He also speaks of his “huge love and admiration” for his mentor Benedict XVI.
On Pope Francis, the archbishop speaks enthusiastically about what he described as the Pontiff’s “freshness”.
There’s “an enthusiasm about Pope Francis, a missionary zeal, which comes from his Jesuit background I think, which is basically that the Church has to be a place of mercy, has to reach out as it possibly can to all sectors of society with that mercy and communicate that mercy to the world.
Doctrine
“Citing doctrine or quoting Canon Law or a rule-based kind of theology is not going to appeal to people today. People want to encounter the person of Jesus Christ, and that’s what Pope Francis is all about, the encounter with Christ,” Archbishop Brown adds.
He describes the fall-off in vocation to the priesthood as a “huge challenge”.
“The number of priests we have working today, 2016, in Ireland, is almost sufficient, almost sufficient, for our needs. But those men many of them are in their 70s…so, in 10 years we’re going to be looking at a completely different situation here,” he says.
Gay Byrne concludes the interview by asking Archbishop Brown what he will say to God in the world that is to come.
“Well, if I see Him at a distance,” the Nuncio replies, “I will simply say, ‘Lord have mercy on me, a sinner.’ And if I’m in the gate with him, I will say ‘Deo gratias – thanks be to God for everything, for the mystery that’s life”.
The Meaning of Life, with Gay Byrne: Archbishop Charles J. Brown, Papal Nuncio is on RTÉ One on Sunday November 20 at 10.30pm.